Category: Water
When the revolution in Rojava began, the groundwater level was very low due mainly to industrial monoculture agriculture organised by the Syrian regime over the last four decades, as well as a decline in rainfall as a result of the global climate crisis.
In 2015, Turkey started to use water as a weapon against Rojava by holding back the water on the rivers which flow from Turkey to Syria through the dams it has been building over the last twenty years.
Then, in October 2019, Turkish state forces invaded some areas of North-East Syria, including the region of Serekaniye, which supplies water to almost half a million people in the region around Hasakah. The Alouk water station in Serekaniye was targeted on the first day of the invasion. Since then it has been fixed and then put out of service again repeatedly.
Since the start of the invasion of Serekaniye, Turkish military forces and their allies have continued to attack water infrastructure, burned newly planted orchards and dammed the rivers providing most of the fresh water and electricity to Syria. Hundreds of thousands of people are currently without safe reliable drinking water, a situation only exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the articles below, you can find more information about issues surrounding water and the struggles for water autonomy in North and East Syria. There are also articles here with information on issues around water in southeastern Turkey, such as Turkish megaproject the Ilisu Dam, whose waters have now submerged the ancient city of Hasankeyf, drowning thousands of years of largely unexcavated human history and displacing an estimated 100,000 people, while giving Turkey unprecedented control over waters of the wider region.
First in Euphrates Canton: Production of organic fertilizer
The Ecology Committee of the Euphrates canton in northeastern Syria has developed a project called, “Vermicompost” to produce organic fertilizer. “The project is an alternative to chemical fertilizers,” said Nesrîn Karho.
Vineyards in Raqqa and Tabqa, an important source of income
In the Raqqa and Tabqa cantons, vineyards are considered important as a source of income, and help meet the needs of families.
AKP government’s 22 years of ecological destruction
During the 22 years of AKP rule, the nature of Turkey and Kurdistan has been opened to the rent and plunder of capital. One of the most crucial headings of the ecological disaster identified with the AKP government is the HEPPs.
Small village in far NE Syria thrives via self-sufficiency efforts
Jarudiye is a sparsely populated village on the Turkish-Iraqi-Syrian border triangle in the countryside of Derik, far northeastern Syria. Despite its small size, the residents have taken it upon themselves to manage the affairs of the village to achieve self-sufficiency and supports its development.
Over 40,000 people in Ain Issa have no access to drinking water due to Turkish attacks
More than 40 thousand people in Ain Issa have been deprived of drinking water due to the attacks by the occupying Turkish army.
Communal work in Tirbespiyê gives results
The communes in Tirbespiyê work together with the municipalities to solve the problems of citizens such as water, electricity and agriculture.
Kobane – after 10 years of liberation and current attacks and resistance
In the wake of the people's uprisings against despotic regimes in North Africa and the MiddleEast, the protests against the Assad regime in Syria also began in spring 2011. The Kurds in Rojava (Western Kurdistan), who had been oppressed for decades by the nationalist policiesof the Ba'ath dictatorship, demanded both a fundamental democratisation of Syria and recognition of their political and cultural self-determination. On 19 July 2012, the people of Kobane urged the Syrian military and the state apparatus to withdraw from the city. This was the beginning of the Rojava Revolution.
Farmers in Zirgan: Protect our nature from the Turkish attacks
Farmers in the town of Zirgan (Abu Rasin) demand the end of the Turkish attacks because “Our food security is at risk. The ongoing Turkish attacks destroy biodiversity.”
Stop the Turkish bombardment on the Tişrin Dam in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (Rojava) or it will collapse
The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, that includes the Kurdish populated areas of Rojava, has stated that the Tişrin Dam at the Euphrates River is on the verge of collapse due to the intense attacks by Turkish military and affiliated jihadist-terorist groups. The administration emphasized that the destruction of this massive water resource in its region, with a capacity of 1.9 billion cubic meters, threatens the biological life in a long stretch of the Euphrates valley that is ecologically the most diverse landscape in that region. It has called on the international community to stand in solidarity before this major destruction takes place.
Interview: “They were even firing indiscriminately” – IDP Hassan Hassan after the Turkish-backed SNA’s attack on Shehba
Hassan Hassan is an English teacher and works with the NGO S.O.S. Afrin. He is originally from Afrin and lived almost seven years in Shehba. His family and he were displaced to North and East Syria following the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army’s December 1 offensive to seize Shehba. He talks to RIC about his memories of the SNA’s attack, mass displacement from Shehba, the travel to Tabqa, and his situation having been now twice displaced.`
Explainer: Kurdish neighborhoods besieged in Aleppo
Two Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo, Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh, are currently besieged by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) following the Islamist force’s unexpected advances and capture of Syria’s second-largest city from Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian Arab Army (SAA). These neighborhoods have maintained their autonomy from both the Assad government and the Islamist opposition since the start of the Syrian conflict, becoming a safe haven for those fleeing violence, persecution and violent repression elsewhere in Aleppo and Syria. In this explainer, Rojava Information Center (RIC) provides key information on the neighborhoods, their humanitarian and political significance, the previous violence they have endured, and the grave threat now facing these isolated neighborhoods.
